The coaching inn (also coaching house or staging inn) was a vital part of Europe's inland transport infrastructure until the development of the railway, providing a resting point ( layover) for people and horses. The

inn Inns are generally establishments or buildings where travelers can seek lodging, and usually, food and drink. Inns are typically located in the country or along a highway; before the advent of motorized transportation they also provided accommo ...

served the needs of travellers, for food, drink, and rest. The attached stables, staffed by hostlers, cared for the horses, including changing a tired team for a fresh one. Coaching inns were used by private travellers in their

coaches Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

, the public riding stagecoaches between one town and another, and (in England at least) the

mail coach A mail coach is a stagecoach that is used to deliver mail. In Great Britain, Ireland, and Australia, they were built to a General Post Office-approved design operated by an independent contractor to carry long-distance mail for the Post Office. M ...

. Just as with roadhouses in other countries, although many survive, and some still offer overnight accommodation, in general coaching inns have lost their original function and now operate as ordinary

pub A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

s. Coaching inns stabled teams of horses for stagecoaches and

es and replaced tired teams with fresh teams. In America,

stage station A stage station or relay station, also known as a staging post, a posting station, or a stage stop, is a place where exhausted horses could be replaced by fresh animals, since a long journey was much faster without delays when horses needed rest ...

s performed these functions. Traditionally English coaching inns were seven miles apart but this depended very much on the terrain. Some English towns had as many as ten such inns and rivalry between them was intense, not only for the income from the stagecoach operators but for the revenue for food and drink supplied to the passengers. Barnet, Hertfordshire still has an unusually high number of historic pubs along its high street due to its former position on the Great North Road from London to the North of England.

Historic coaching inns

The Black Lion in Cardigan (established 1105) is probably the oldest Welsh coaching inn. Other historic inns in Wales include the

Black Boy Inn The Black Boy Inn (or just Black Boy) is a hotel and public house in the Royal Town of Caernarfon in Gwynedd, Wales which is thought to date back to 1522, making it one of the oldest surviving inns in North Wales. It is within the medieval wall ...

(built 1522) and the Groes Inn (1573). The Bear, Oxford, was founded in 1774 as 'The Jolly Trooper' from the house of the stableman to the coaching inn 'The Bear Inn', on

High Street High Street is a common street name for the primary business street of a city, town, or village, especially in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. It implies that it is the focal point for business, especially shopping. It is also a metonym fo ...

. It acquired the name The Bear, and the history of the coaching inn, when The Bear Inn was converted into a private house in 1801. There were many coaching inns in what is now central London. The only remaining one with the galleries to the bedrooms above is

The George Inn, Southwark The George Inn, or The George, is a public house established in the medieval period on Borough High Street in Southwark, London, owned and leased by the National Trust. It is located about from the south side of the River Thames near London ...

, owned by the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

and still run as a pub. Many have been demolished and plaques mark their location. The Nomura building close to the

Museum of London The Museum of London is a museum in London, covering the history of the UK's capital city from prehistoric to modern times. It was formed in 1976 by amalgamating collections previously held by the City Corporation at the Guildhall Museum (fou ...

London Wall The London Wall was a defensive wall first built by the Romans around the strategically important port town of Londinium in AD 200, and is now the name of a modern street in the City of London. It has origins as an initial mound wall and ...

commemorates the "Bull and Mouth" Inn. The Golden Cross House, opposite St Martin's in the Fields recalls the Golden Cross, Charing Cross coaching inn.

Cock and Ball

A pair of coaching inns along

Watling Street Watling Street is a historic route in England that crosses the River Thames at London and which was used in Classical Antiquity, Late Antiquity, and throughout the Middle Ages. It was used by the ancient Britons and paved as one of the main ...

in Stony Stratford are claimed to have given rise to the term " cock and ball stories". The claim is that stories by coach passengers would be further embellished as they passed between the two hostelries, "The Cock" and "The Ball", fuelled by ale and an interested audience. Hence any suspiciously elaborate tale would become a cock and ball story. However, there is no evidence to suggest that this is where the phrase originated. The phrase, first recorded in 1621, may instead be an allusion to

Aesop's fables Aesop's Fables, or the Aesopica, is a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and storyteller believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 564 BCE. Of diverse origins, the stories associated with his name have descended to ...

, with their incredible talking animals.

References

Bibliography

*''Coaching Era, The: Stage and Mail Coach Travel in and Around Bath, Bristol and Somerset'', Roy Gallop, Fiducia (2003), * 'The English Urban Inn 1560–1750', Alan Everitt, in ''Perspectives in English Urban History'', ed. By Alan Everitt, Palgrave Macmillan (1973), I

External links

Coaching inns
By Anne Woodley.
Stagecoaches and Coaching Inns
Cottontown.
Photos of examples of what may be considered coaching inns in geograph.org.uk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coaching Inn Transport infrastructure Drinking establishments in Europe Tourist accommodations Horse-related professions and professionals Hotel types